1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a pneumatic tube system in which a carrier is moved rapidly by air pressure or vacuum back and forth through a single conveyor tube extending between customer and teller terminals, the customer terminal being located at an outside drive-up customer banking facility visible from a teller terminal located inside a bank building. More particularly, the invention relates to a customer terminal construction for a pneumatic tube system in which the carrier that passes through the single conveyor tube is removable from the system at both tube terminals.
In addition, the invention relates to a simple customer terminal construction for a pneumatic tube system in which the carrier arrives at the terminal moving in a generally horizontal direction, and in which the carrier may be presented upon arrival automatically at a convenient location and conveniently positioned for removal by a customer seated in an automobile at the drive-up customer terminal. When the customer returns the carrier to the mechanism, it is automatically sent back to a teller terminal without requiring special operating instructions to be given to the customer, and without requiring precise positioning of the carrier in the mechanism.
Moreover, the invention relates to a pneumatic tube system customer terminal of the type described in which safety mechanism is provided for preventing damage to or jamming of the system accidentally, or injury to a customer.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many types and kinds of pneumatic tube system customer and teller terminals are known for carrying out banking services between a customer drive-up station and a teller inside a bank building with visibility between the customer and the bank teller.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,237,933 shows a pneumatic tube system banking service terminal having a safety device for preventing injury to a user during door closing of a terminal door which presents a captive carrier to a user oriented in a generally vertical direction. However, the construction therein does not provide a mechanism having few parts which will accommodate a door presenting a removable carrier outside the terminal to a customer which door cannot be closed if the customer overloads the carrier and which door cannot injure the customer if the customer's hand or other body portion is not removed from the door during closing.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,828,698 shows a customer terminal for a pneumatic tube system drive-up station in which a removable carrier is presented in a deal drawer which is projected from the terminal toward a vehicle in which the customer is seated, and in which the deal drawer has a safety closure head which stops or reverses drawer movement if the drawer head strikes the vehicle or other object. Such deal drawer construction, however, has complicated mechanisms and does not provide a simple mechanism for presenting a carrier conveniently to a customer and does not provide for avoiding damage to the system by the customer overloading the carrier returned to the terminal.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,059,246 shows a pneumatic tube banking system having separate, differently constructed customer and teller terminals having multiple tubes extending between the terminals. An arriving carrier is presented in vertically oriented position to the customer at the customer terminal and requires special orientation of the carrier by the customer in returning the same to the terminal. Moreover, the terminal disclosed in this patent is not adaptable for a single tube system operation. However, certain of the supply equipment and components for supplying air under differential pressure to the pneumatic tube system may be used in a single tube system.
Other known types of pneumatic tube system terminals, while providing for horizontally extending system tube connection with a customer terminal and for presenting a carrier externally of the terminal to a user, have complicated constructions, numerous parts requiring careful adjustment and difficult maintenance, critical operational sequences, and high cost of manufacture. Such known devices, for example, are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,610,554, 3,851,843 and 3,948,466.
Accordingly, a need exists in the field of drive-up banking service equipment for a simple pneumatic tube customer terminal construction having relatively few structural and operating components and parts operative automatically to present a carrier, in a single tube system, upon arriving at the customer terminal to a customer seated in an adjacent vehicle, with the carrier conveniently positioned for handling by the customer, without requiring precise positioning of the carrier when it is returned by the customer to the terminal, in which the carrier is returned automatically to a teller when replaced in the mechanism by the customer, and in which the mechanism protects the system against damage by a carrier overloaded by the customer, and also protects against customer injury. Further, a need similarly exists for a simple pneumatic tube system customer terminal construction which avoids the deficiencies and objectionable features described with respect to known prior art.